Spring is here, strawberries are about to arrive, and Maya has a special request. Can you help?
I am about to be inundated with strawberries, and it's also about to be my birthday and I’d like to bake myself a cake to share with friends. One of my favorite cakes growing up was a box of pink strawberry cake mix with fluffy white frosting, but now that I’m an adult I wonder if there isn’t a way to have my cake and eat it without all the processed sugars, fats, preservatives and food dyes! Does anyone out there have a recipe for a strawberry cake that actually uses strawberries?
Something light and fluffy with little bits of strawberry and that precious pink I remember? Google leads me to endless pages of boxed white mix with strawberry jello – EW! – and many recipes are more similar to a quick bread/carrot cake than they are to birthday cake.
So anything light, fluffy, and homemade would be much appreciated. Also, I’m really looking for Strawberry Cake, not just to put strawberries in the layers on another cake. If anyone out there can help me I bet it’s you guys! Thanks!
Maya, a strawberry cake sounds perfect for the season. Making the fluffy pink cakes you remember from childhood with fresh strawberries sounds appealing, but also slightly challenging. Fresh strawberries (all berries, really) have a high moisture content and they break down quickly while baking. You can simply try adding two cups of fresh chopped strawberries to a regular yellow cake recipe; see how that goes. It may turn the cake a little soggy, however, and it also probably won't disperse the strawberry flavor evenly throughout the cake.
And you almost definitely will not get that same pink color without resorting to some kind of artificial coloring. We speak from experience: many naturally red or pink juices that you think would dye a cake actually turn brown or dull when mixed with leavenings or exposed to heat.
If you'd like to try, here is a basic cake recipe to use:
• Recipe: D.I.Y. Yellow Cake
For the icing, a simple whipped cream or sweetened whipped cream with a touch of cream cheese would be easy and elegant:
• Word of Mouth: Chantilly Cream
• Tip: Whipped Cream with Cream Cheese
If you are willing to compromise a little on the recipe and use flavored gelatin (a very good way to get stronger flavor) just this once, I will share a recipe a little later today that will give you a cake that is much closer to your childhood memories.
Readers, any thoughts?
Related: How To Make an Oreo Cake
(Image: Flickr member ralph and jenny licensed for use under Creative Commons)
I made a strawberry cake from scratch for Easter using this recipe from Country Living: http://www.countryliving.com/recipefinder/fresh-strawberry-cake-3408
It uses strawberry preserves rather than gelatin, but it also incorporates a little red food coloring to give it that sweet hue.
view amber77's profile
Bon Appetit has a recipe in this months issue RSVP, uses jam and strawberries.
view ScorpioJ's profile
I made this cake for myself for my birthday and it was SO delicious! To get it more pink, you did need to add a little bit of red food coloring, but it was still a lot of fun.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/10/pink-lady-cake/
view coppertone24's profile
Here's a good strawberry cupcake recipe that takes Magnolia's vanilla cupcake with the addition of homemade strawberry syrup: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickpoon/140971749/
For more fluffy factor, I might suggest separating the eggs and whipping the whites half of the sugar to stiff peaks, then folding it with the rest of the ingredients in the last step.
view thousandfold's profile
I've been wanting a cake recipe like that for a while, too. Just recently I saw this one and have been wanting to try it. Seems like it fits the bill!
From Scratch Strawberry Cake - http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/?p=1088
view digigirl's profile
I saved this strawberry cupcake recipe last year - I can't wait for the berries to get ripe so we can try it:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/06/ponchatoula-strawberry-cupcakes-recipe.html
view SisterRae's profile
i've made the flickr recipe posted by thousandfold before with success. the cream cheese frosting was a little runny, but i probably just didn't add enough powdered sugar. strawberry cake is my favorite - looking forward to trying some of these other recipes.
view bokeh's profile
www.ccokscountry.com has a recipe for a "strawberry poke cake" that might fit the bill.
view coachmilloy's profile
Maya, I've been craving the exact same thing recently. I want a pink strawberry cake made with real strawberries in the cake batter. Like you, I had a hard time finding something that creates a pink cake without fake food coloring. Eventually I found the same recipe that Digigirl posted above ( http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/?p=1088 ). There's a basic buttercream frosting recipe in the comments. I plan on making this cake this Saturday for my birthday party. Hope it turns out well!
view Nougat's profile
hmmm...i wonder if you could add finally chopped bits of dried strawberry to the batter? by the time they baked they would be moist but dried fruits don't fall apart like fresh ones when baking.
I''m also thinking you might be able to use a bit of pomegranate juice or beet juice to add some deeper pink color to the cake - I've had luck with both keeping their color through the baking process...
off to experiment!
view jfinthecity's profile
jfinthecity, those are great ideas! I'll have to try them, too. My father is allergic to artificial red dyes. Even if all he ingests is a Tylenol with a red coating on it, he will break out in this big black splotches all over his body that take weeks to fade. He'll be visiting me in late May, so I'm really eager to find natural ways to color fun summer foods.
view Nougat's profile
a lot of people are allergic to those red dyes. my summer cooking job was funny - we'd always pull out a smidgen of red velvet cake before the red went in for someone and bake it. i always thought it was so much better - a light choc. cake - a little on the dry side but i think we just overbaked it - than all that nasty bright red gunk.
view Joan in SB's profile